Lucky Moose Shopkeeper Off Some of The Hook

I wish I had thought of the name "Lucky Moose Food Mart" I really do....but I didn't and David Chen did...lucky him....anyway David is breathing a little easier now after having some, but not all of the charges dropped following his chasing down and catching a thief who stole from the Lucky Moose Food Mart in downtown Chinatown in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

David was charged by police when he chased tackled a man he "alleges" (I love saying alleges...sounds so Law and Order like) says stole a tray of flowers from outside the Lucky Moose Food Mart.  Apparently when the thief made the grab David ran like a moose deer,  caught him, tied him up, and stuck him in a van for safe keeping until police arrived.

Where this gets kind of silly is when the police arrived later to arrest David, charging him with several offences including kidnapping, carrying a concealed weapon, assault and forcible confinement.


Awww..c'mon now....well the Crown later decided to drop the kidnapping and concealed weapons charges, but the others remain outstanding.
Now here is how those of us on Silverhorn Mountain look at this.....a common thief steals some flowers from the Lucky Moose. The owner of those flowers catches him and does what he thinks necessary to hold him for the police....the police and Crown get their knickers in knot and decide why not get two for the price of one and charge everyone with something....except anyone with half a wit knows that David did what he thought was necessary to save his property, and I for one, don't blame him.

If David Chen hadn't  chased down the flower thief and caught him, what do you think are the chances that the police would have ever caught him? Slim to none? None at all? All of the above?  You got it, how much effort is the Toronto police force going to put into catching someone who stole a tray of flowers? I doubt it would make the most wanted list....On the other hand, shouldn't a shop owner, who is physically able to, try to get his property back, and if he can, shouldn't he arrest the person who took it?

Otherwise, the next time someone steals a basket of flowers, or perhaps a Rolex watch, all the store owner can do is say, "Thanks for stealing from me, have a nice day, would you like a receipt?" 

That is, of course, that the story is true, and the person really did steal the tray of flowers from the Lucky Moose Food Mart in Toronto's Chinatown.

Calgary Flames Vaccinated Against Swine Flu

Well...well...it seems that even with things like the Canadian H1N1 vaccination program, which I by the way is going swimmingly 

It apparently helps to be a sports star or more exactly, a member of the Calgary Flames or a family member of the Calgray Flames NHL hockey team. Members of the Calgary Flames were given their swine flu shots in a   medical clinic "under the direction of Alberta Health Services"  Just in the nick of time, almost like a last second goal in a tie game, because one day later the province suspended it's H1N1 vaccination clinics because of the vaccine shortage.

According to the Calgary Flames H1N1 report, the Flames organization and medical staff thought it was a good idea to get their players protected quickly, citing reasons like the physical contact players have, the "extreme exhertion" they perform, all all the travel in and out of the country. There was also the fuss that could have been caused if the players had of shown up at a public clinic. Hmm..actually it might have been good for line-up moral to have a player there signing autographs, imagine the press, "Get you shot and an autograph" maybe even your picture taken with a Calgary Flame hockey player....that would have been something! But alas, that ain't likely now, given that they are already done....I hear some of their family members got the shot too....pretty good deal, the priviledges of being a Canadian hockey player I guess, not standing in Alberta cold to get a needle...that is for the fans to do.....

In their defense, the players did get the shot before the vaccine supply was shut down and limited to only certain people, so that isn't really an issue, but getting special treatment, well.....I'm not sure what to think about that....what about you? What do you think about the Calgary Flames recieving the H1N1 vaccine at a medical clinic while others lined up to wait?

Read the full news report Here

United Delays Dave Carrolls Luggage

Ya know....one of the reasons I kinda lost interest in writing The View From Silverhorn Mountain was that it was becoming a bit too difficult to keep up....I  mean c'mon find some odd stuff in the news and comment on it, there is just so much 'odd stuff' that it was hard to keep up with it all. Like the most recent Dave Carroll incident. You remember Dave, he is the guy that had his guitar broken on a United Airlines flight and decided to write a song about it called, United Breaks Guitars.  He posted the song to You Tube and I suppose, in the words of bloggers, it went "viral" Meaning it was all over the net in no time, in fact, close to 6 million views.

You'd think after something like that, which I am sure cost United all kinds of embarrassment if nothing else, they would sit up and take notice every time the name Dave Carroll showed up on a flight manifest.....well not so apparently. Dave recently took another United Airlines flight, and guess what? They lost his luggage...well...I think they are describing it as "delayed"  I dunno....if the luggage owner arrives at his destination, and his luggage doesn't....that sounds like lost to me. If it arrives later, well, I would describe that as "found" In other words, "lost and found"

Poor Untied I mean United, they can't catch a break with this guy. Where do you think he was headed when they lost his luggage?  Dave was on his way to Colorado Springs,  Colorado, where he was hired to deliver the keynote speech at a conference for RightNow Technologies, a company that creates customer service software. Huh-huh....this guy doesn't even need to write his keynote speeches, he can just get up and tell his audience about his flights. This one gets even a little better, while United officials told him to wait, his luggage was just delayed, at the same time an airport official was trying to get him to leave the  luggage claim area.

I was thinking we should bring Dave in here to talk to the virtual Silverhorn Mountain Lodge staff about the importance of customer service but I think that might be risky.....we haven't lost any customer luggage to date, but Alonzo our entertainment coordinator garden gnome here at the lodge, has been known to fall inside of the occasional tuba.....oh never mind, that wasn't even funny.....

Here is Dave Carroll's video, United Breaks Guitars

Silverhorn Mountain Calendar

Did you order your Silverhorn Lodge 2010 Calendar yet?  Featuring a picture of our Chief Garden Gnome Marcello! These are selling fast, so don't wait, order yours today. They are only $6.99 plus shipping and handling, Order Here

Anybody Missing A Foot?

Hey Ho Silverhorners! Welcome back to the View From Silverhorn Mountain after what I can only describe as "protracted hiatus" which sounds pretty good....it's like when a television news reporter calls in sick, the replacement announcer says that the regular guy is "on assignment"

Well it's been a busy summer here at Silverhorn Lodge, situated high on the side of beautiful Silverhorn Mountain overlooking shimmering Silverhorn Lake....and so on....

Marcello and the rest of the garden gnomes who have taken over management of the Lodge, worked things out with me, and they have allowed me back on the computer, which is great! They kept me standing in the yard all summer holding a welcome sign....

So here's the thing, let's get right to it shall we....another shoe has turned up on the shore in British Columbia....with part of a human foot still inside. This is the 7th foot in a shoe that has been found on the west coast since 2007.
That is seven shoes and parts of feet but police say they have no evidence to suggest foul play.....no evidence.... 7 shoes with feet and no body attached does not suggest foul play?? Are people not reporting that they are missing their feet?

Apparently foresnsic and DNA investigations have managed to link the first foot to a deceased male. Two female feet have been matched, and so were two male feet....leaving them with two right feet that are as yet unmatched and unidentified. If there are any girls reading this, think back, have you danced with anyone who seemed to be dancing with two left feet recently??

Feet are washing up on shore in sneakers and authorities don't think it's foul play...but yet, feet aren't washing up on other shores, although I did find a boot in Silverhorn Lake once....no foot in it though. Something odd happening there I think...it is British Columbia....a lot of odd stuff happens there....(think Sasqwatch)

In the old days, before the recession, I would dispatch Marcello, our roving garden gnome correspondent to the area to report on it, but....well there is a recession and we pretty much blew our Silverhorn Travel Budget on a trip to New York to pitch our idea for a new television show. We had an idea to cast celebrity ballroom dancers from the popular television show, put them on the freeway and make them dance....you guessed it, we called the show "Dancing With The Cars"

It didn't fly....